Can’t Win Them All: Bonds Looses Collusion Case

Call it failure to let go, call it bad blood, or if you're Barry Bonds call it collusion. Regardless of how you say it the most recent (and hopefully last) legal case regarding Barry Bonds is officially over.

Last Wednesday independent arbitrator Fredric Horowitz ruled in favor of Major League Baseball over Barry Bonds in regards to accusations of collusion following the 2007 season.

I myself was quite surprised when not too long after he dodged a legal bullet with the felony charges, he decided to go on the offensive with the help of the MLBPA.

Nobody would let poor Mr. Bonds play with them and of course like any 40 year-old adult male playing professional baseball, he decided to lash out. Just like frustrated 12 year-old child he threw a fit but unlike a 12 year-old child he had the means of taking legal action.

What all of this really boils down to is the fact that Bonds couldn't see the writing on the wall that it was time to hang it up and get out while on top. While it was an unfortunate ending to his playing career, he wasn't mister innocent in all of this. Not only did he get in trouble with steroids, but also acquired a reputation as being a poor teammate.

Combining all of that with the fact that he was entering his mid-40's you can see the justifiable reasoning why no one wanted to sign Bonds. It's a risk in itself taking on an aged player, regardless of the prior years performance, let alone one with a cloud of legal trouble looming over his head. No general manager wants to take on that kind of a mess.

It would be unusual if a player coming off a .276 average, 28 home run, and .565 slugging percentage season, with .288 isolated power average and a league leading .480 on base percentage didn't get picked up at all. If you combine that with an aging player with legal troubles, then the numbers don't seem so appealing.

Even if you put the legal trouble aside, Bonds's abysmal defensive runs above average (-14.5) and severe drop in base running ability during the 2007 season would most likely have been a major deterrent. The only things opposing teams needed to do was either walk him and not worry about him, or just make sure he didn't hit it out of the park as his BABIP was a horrendous .254.

Barry Bonds should just count his blessings and be grateful he didn't end up in more trouble than he did. After all, he did cheat in the game of baseball, yet was still allowed to be in the MLB. To put that in better perspective, Pete Rose, who NEVER cheated in baseball is still not allowed in the MLB family.

Hopefully this is the last we have to hear about Barry Bonds in legal news and instead hear about him in good old fashioned baseball news. After all, Bonds found out the hard way that just like in the game of baseball, you can't win them all.